http://www.prospect.org/weblog/2006/10/post_1667.html#013989 IN PRAISE OF GOOD ENOUGH. A couple folks, including
Jason Zengerle and
Ross Douthat, wonder why I thought John Kerry's overdue
interview with Bob Woodward put the former nominee in a positive light. As they noted, nothing he said was particularly revolutionary, and most of it just relies on gathering noted experts and listening to them. Which, I'd suggest, would be a genuine improvement. But if Kerry's comments are a bit overly resonant of Ross Perot's "I'll get all the smart people, lock 'em in a room, and not feed 'em till they finish" attitude towards governance, there's a more serious reason I found the interview worthwhile.
First, there's a fair amount of common sense in there that hasn't been particularly common in government as of late. After 9/11, Kerry says he would have asked, "What are we up against? What is this all about? Did these guys just attack us because this is part of Osama bin Laden's strategy for a greater caliphate in the Middle East, or are they attacking us for other reasons?" If that question had been asked, we'd all be better off. Similarly, if the Bush administration had been more cognizant that the post-9/11 moment was a special and unique opportunity, much could've been done. But their instinct was to press the advantage, not let up a little and work within broad consensus. So when Iran came in 2003 begging for a grand bargain, they sent the Ayatollahs packing. And now, in a weaker moment, we can't even get them back to the table. I could turn this into a much longer post, as, to me, it's the greatest of Bush's manifold sins and failures. But to put it pithily, 9/11 could have been used to make the world a better place. It wasn't.
Moreover, Kerry's reflections and ideas bespeak a caution that sounds comforting to me. It might create a sort of indecisiveness, hearing from and listening to that many people, but I would vastly prefer an administration in slight awe of the scale of these issues to one dead set on denying their complexity. Kerry's admission of instincts in that direction, an admission he clearly felt would make him appear weak during the campaign, signals that he would have pursued a management style that's safer, more mature, and more likely to actually generate good outcomes than what we've seen lately. All that said, it is true that nothing he said suggests a visionary or brilliant outlook. So if my praise suggested otherwise, it's just that, after the last few years, good enough seems pretty damn great.--Ezra Klein
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